About

Chantel Riley is a Canadian-Jamaican singer, songwriter and actress. Born and raised in Mississauga, Canada, she performed in church Christmas plays and sang in the choir. With no prior acting experience or training she first entered the entertainment industry after auditioning and landing the lead role of ‘Nala’ in The Lion King, Germany.

Following her return to Canada, she again landed the lead role of Nala, but this time in the Broadway production of Lion King, which to date is the third longest-running show in history and the highest grossing Broadway production of all time, having grossed more than $1 billion.

Chantel describes playing the role of Nala as “ a dream come true.” “Before I had the chance to become Nala in 2011 back in Hamburg, Germany, I had no idea that this was even remotely supposed to happen for my life.”

In 2016 she appeared in Jesse Owens biopic “Race,” as Quincella Nickerson, a 22 year old socialite, based on a historical character from Jesse Owens’ life. Race was recently nominated for several awards at the Canadian Screen Awards, including “Best Motion Picture.”